It’s Nam baby! The Coffee Break 13 April 2015.

Yes yes I know dear readers, I have disappeared for a bit and have now returned. Apologies by the way for neglecting this blog, but the world of work demands much from all of us – shame we cannot pursue our passions and make a living off of them as well. Now onto today’s discussion: Bad Company 2 Vietnam. That expansion is still alive and well after nearly five years have passed since its release date. Suffice it to say I took a gamble when I grew tired of vanilla Bad Company, so I purchased the Vietnam expansion for fifteen dollars and logged on. Since then I have been playing that expansion non-stop, and combined with Team Fortress 2 my spare time has been spent torching the countryside – hell I even have Starcraft 2 Firebat quotes memorized now.

Initially I was a bit nervous when I looked at the Vietnam DLC; looking all over the forums yielded little info as to whether or not the servers were alive and well. Finally I went to Google and searched server information. Much to my surprise there were servers active, and indeed people played on them regularly. The purchase was made, and Bad Company 2 suddenly got a fresh coat of paint and a retrofit. Sometimes I wonder if my interest in the Vietnam DLC has caused me to neglect my other games and friends, but to hell with them, onto Operation Hastings (humor intended)!

Jokes aside, the Vietnam DLC is packed full of character – something that helps set it apart from the vanilla game. Now I know: “but writer, it’s Vietnam; it already is unique!” Well reader, I wasn’t talking about the maps, rather the guns themselves. The bits of rust here and there, the worn wooden stocks on rifles like the M14 and the M1, and strips of linen wrapped around some of the weapons to hold them together gives off the impression that both the US soldiers and the NVA regulars have been in the jungle far too long and have waged a guerrilla war against one another (imagine guerrilla campaign against guerrilla campaign). Gameplay-wise it’s the same good old Bad Company; fluid, smooth, and fun (emphasis on the fun). The weapon I particularly enjoy using is the Flamethrower. Sure there is the M16 and the AK 47 in the game – we are talking about Vietnam after all – yet those two rifles get plenty of face time in other military shooters on the market: I wanted something different. Suffice it to say I’m still learning how to effectively use the weapon, but I think I’ve got the technique nailed down for the most part. Plus these skills transfer over to Team Fortress 2 nicely; what can I say, I like fire.

Going through my backlog of games that I still need to play has given me plenty of time to appreciate just how far we have come, but also to appreciate what we already have on the market. While the game is five years old, Bad Company 2 is certainly still going strong; a classic like that should be alive and well for many years to come should any of you wish to play Bad Company 2 and the Vietnam expansion on PC – total cost for the base game and expansion will run you thirty dollars. The suggestion, therefore, would be to wait for the base game to go on sale, and then snag both that and the DLC at the same time – trust me you will not be disappointed (unless you are running Windows 2000 on some 15 year-old rig that has 512 mb of RAM and a CPU slower than grandma before bedtime). Humor aside, however, the game runs great on modern systems – you will not have trouble playing this game. Anyways folks, I am going to return to Nam and do more ass-kicking – I’ll catch you all next time.